Random Paradise
by drama fixated
Summary: I had fallen in love with the oddest girl that ever lived.


Disclaimer: Me no own Harry Potter. That all belongs to J.K. Rowling and other related companies. The only thing that's mine is this very very odd fic.

Author's Note: A plot bunny gone awry. Happy reading?

- - -

I had fallen in love with the oddest girl that ever lived.

So not a Malfoy thing to do, especially a Draco Malfoy thing.

Don't ask me how it happened. It had been a random thing, completely out of the blue. I had never expected it to happen, and for it to never happen. But it did. Which I'm still not sure whether that's good or not. Maybe a prior notice or memo saying that I was going to fall in love with the unlikeliest person would have been nice. But then I would have gone running off screaming bloody murder.

Again, not a Draco Malfoy thing to do. So what could I do? Stand my ground and accept it? Accept that I loved, of all the people in the world, _Luna Lovegood_? Loving Ginny Weasley would have been better. But no, I couldn't choose the person I wanted to love, if I could love anyone else other than myself. It had to happen completely random, when it was sure to catch me off guard. Somehow, though, I wasn't surprised to know it, to feel it, to be acknowledged of its existence.

After all, who would expect seeing Hogwarts' snarkiest bastard and the odd girl out together? One was bratty, the other was not normal – just quirky. Yet it all fit together, _we _fit together. It didn't make sense, but then again, who needed sense? Who cared if anything made sense or not? That was – and still is – one of the things Luna believed. No wonder she irked Granger so much.

Slowly I got used to it. The thought of it didn't balk me at all – but I learned to accept. What has to happen has to happen, right? And what happened already, you can't change it. Even if you wanted so badly to, you couldn't. It wasn't worth it, plus there was the off chance that you might get used to it. Although it would take you a while, eventually and gradually it wouldn't bother you anymore. You just learned to accept it, and that was it. Same thing happened with me.

At first I was stubborn to accept it, and I flat out refused to acknowledge and know that what I felt for Luna was no ordinary thing; it wasn't hate, nor was it like, either. It was something out of this world, which is saying something. And only Luna could make me feel that way.

I wanted to scream at her until my voice grew hoarse when I realized this, that I loved her and only her; but it took all of me to restrain myself. She hadn't done anything wrong – unless she had cast an enchantment over me. Which she hadn't, and I knew she hadn't. I was tempted to place all the blame on her, though, for making me and having me feel this way. She welcomed it, smiling serenely all the while. As if nothing was wrong. The urge to scream at her died off and I was left with only shame. Malfoys don't balk and cower at everything that's in front of them; I had done exactly that.

Yet, when it all came down to it, I figured that nothing was wrong with me loving Luna. Of course my family would have a problem – scratch that, not a problem, a huge hissy fit – with it if or when they found out (which they eventually did). But did I care? Strangely, no. Or maybe it wasn't strange at all. It wasn't as if I was afraid of how they would or could react – hell, no – it was more of a 'how dare you' type of thing. As in _how could you fall in love with a Lovegood_? _Of all the people!_ _You have tarnished the Malfoy name!_ Even more strange, I didn't care if they _did _react that way or not (which they did). I wanted and loved her, and she loved and wanted me.

It all fit perfectly, but didn't make sense to anyone. To hell with sense, we figured, and got together. Under the close scrutiny of everyone around us, she made me forget everything. She made me not think and care about what other people thought of us, and toss aside conformity and meaning altogether.

As long as I had Luna by my side, I figured, everything would be as eccentric yet alright for us. Everything would be fine. If we went over numerous bridges, we were sure to go over more. And that was fine with me. It wasn't a rebellious thing I had done to spite my parents; oh no, spiting them by falling in love with a loony girl whom they didn't care for (and preferred if she was rid of, as well as her whole family) was the last thing on my mind, and the last thing I wanted to do.

But everything and everyone around me had changed; even my view of Muggle borns and the world. Luna had a part in it, as did I and what I had come to realize about everyone and everything around me. Not everything was what it appeared to be, and not everyone were what they looked like. Far from it; what lay underneath the surface and the ever so deceiving façade they had was what mattered.

And Luna was the epitome of that. She looked and acted like a crazy, out there girl, but in reality she wasn't like that. I had so many insightful conversations with her that further opened my eyes to what I didn't want to see, what I had to see. With her I learned more about the world, about humanity, about what the hell I was thinking and doing.

She didn't talk me out of becoming a Death Eater, nor did she encourage me. "Whatever you want to do and whomever you want to be is up to you, Draco," she said airily to me one day. A day I would never forget for the rest of my life.

It was a day of discovery and realization. It has no date and time and year for me, but there's no need for all that useless information. What happened that day is etched clearly in my mind, making me remember it forever. Even if I don't want to relive the memories over and over again, I have to. I have to keep remembering and not brushing away the memories, so that what my "friends" and "family" deserved what they got coming to them.

That day had been bright, airy and sunny. Just like her personality. Luna was no optimist, but she still looked on the bright side of things. "It's better than wondering what and if everything's going to go worse," she told me. And she found it comforting. She wasn't fooling herself by letting herself believe that everything was all right with the world. She was off in her own world sometimes, one that she had created for herself; sometimes she told me what happened in her world.

And me being intrigued, I decided to join her world. I was utterly curious about it and fascinated by it. It drew me in, slowly, so tantalizingly slow that it was all I could do was to not to wish for it to hurry up, to let me in, for time to fly by. Luna welcomed me in, and soon I was lost. Lost in her world or lost in mine, who knew; but I was lost. This lost I didn't mind being. It was a kind of a lost I most welcomed. The kind of lost that told me I wasn't really loony, nonexistent. I was unique, which was good. Very good. After all, seeing scores of Draco Malfoys in the world isn't exactly enchanting to think of, is it?

Thought so.

But you know, the funny thing is, even if I ended up loving the person who's the exact opposite of me, it turned out to be the best thing in the world. An odd mismatch, that's what we are, but it's a good – no, beyond fantastic – mismatch. People would have never expected me to say this kind of thing, but somewhere along the way my deluded self stopped believing in illusions and started believing in reality. So what if things that were expected of me I never made them come true? So what if I disappointed everyone around me?

Now that I knew the truth about them, and how truly murderous and malevolent they were, enough to kill their own family and friends and themselves without a second thought just so evil would for once prevail, I had dashed all their dreams. Not on purpose, but just to teach them that I would never do their bidding. Never again. A person would have never expected me to walk away, to never fulfill my lifelong dream of being a Death Eater and helping evil win over good. But now, I had changed as well as everything I knew. I wasn't the same Draco Malfoy I had been for the past sixteen years; I was someone different. Same name, same identity, different person underneath the name.

And to think that people thought that Luna had a hand in this. For the record, she didn't. A person might have thought that she would try to change me with her airy and loony ways, but that she didn't. She just let me be myself, didn't try to change or reformat me at all. If I was myself, she was happy. Luna hated – and still hates – people who try to change themselves to just to make other people happy, or just to make themselves happy. "It isn't wrong to be yourself, isn't it?" she had asked me one time while we were talking.

I had pondered over it and said no. After all, nothing wrong with being a sadistic sarcastic bratty bastard, right? As long as a person was himself, Luna believed, that was enough. More than enough. If a person was happy with himself, that was all he needed. All he needed to make him happy. And now, that was what I had finally realized and let myself be Draco. Just Draco. And Luna loved me that way; she didn't like me being anyone else. She accepted me for who I was. Before, in return, I had scoffed and ridiculed her Lunaness. I had no idea why she wanted to be airy and out there, when she could just be normal.

Now I have to scoff at myself for even thinking that, for even _believing _that for a second. I had known nothing of originality back then; I do now. Funny how life works in ways a person doesn't expect. Then I didn't know originality was what made you real and believable; I only knew that it wasn't normal and good. And it took a person like Luna to help me realize that it wasn't, to help me realize the truth. Not the fake lies I had been tricked to believe.

Luna taught me all that, and more. I'm honestly so thankful for her. Some days I can't help but wonder what about me she liked and wonder how in the world I had gotten so ridiculously lucky. Maybe I still refuse to believe how she had loved – and still loves – me of all people. Maybe I refused to believe a blind lie. Except this wasn't – and isn't – a blind lie. It's one of those strange ways of the world again. I hadn't expected to be with her and love her, and she hadn't expected to be with me and love me. It wasn't exactly spontaneous, but it was close.

Not a one night stand turned love affair. I chuckle at that thought. Not a typical love affair, but definitely a unbelievable love affair. One that I don't regret having at all, especially with Luna. Not that I had many love affairs to begin with, come to think of it . . I have to laugh at myself. What rambling thoughts I have now, thanks to Luna, I smile affectionately as she enters the living room and sits down next to me on the couch.

I wrap an arm around her and lean my head against hers. This is it; the small burst of happy and warm comfort that feels unlike anything in the world. Nothing big here, just the way we want it and we're happy. Nothing frilly and over the top, which is just fine. Nice, but not _nice_, as in perfect. The nice that you're comfortable and incredibly happy with. And I don't regret any of this, that I know for sure, I think as I gently caress her hand. Not any of it. And if I denied it, what good would that do?

Right now I'm just happy sitting here reveling being with her and having her next to me. Since I only need her to be happy, just as she only needs me for her to be happy. And that's the best feeling in the world, knowing that I'm needed and wanted. And when it's with Luna, it's the absolute best feeling in the world. Nothing can compare to it, and nothing ever will. The best thing that could ever happen in my life.

Just like falling in love with her had been.


End file.
